Around one in 10 of the new recruits will join the firm's five-year higher apprentice programme, which combines on-the-job training with degree-level studies.

Around 140 young people will join the submarine-building business in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, a further 100 at the firm's ship-building sites in Portsmouth and Glasgow and the rest spread across other BAE sites.

Group managing director Nigel Whitehead said: "Our continued commitment to the apprentice programme reflects the sustainable position of our UK business and the success of the programme in generating BAE Systems' workforce of the future.

"We like to train people from an early age and find that the combination of on-the-job training and academic study without debt, is a great motivator for our apprentices to stay with us."

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So wars are on the up and our leaders trying their best to make this the normal thing, keeping up with neo colonialism and exploitation. As long as these youngsters can justify this in their conscience, they are not
forced into working as young engineers for arms manufacturers, than that is their personal choice. We need civil engineers at present, we are operating vast offshore wind farms, need to safeguard our low lying estuaries and are best placed for alternative energy production, so there is more on offer than working for a vested interest in war.

A lot in this region if you ever look at thier careers site, x10 aircraft supervisors recently, continued apprentice recruiting at the college of west anglia, various admin and finance jobs. They employ a huge amount of people at Marham